9-14-18. Las Vegas NV. (L-R) Eddy Reynoso (Canelo Alvarez trainer) goes after Able Sanchez(GGG trainer) during a scuffle during the weigh in at T-Mobile Friday. The two boxers will fight for a 2nd time on Sept 15th in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile arena.
Photo by Gene Blevins/LA DailyNews/SCNG

He made a deal with the 23-year-old Mexican and fought him in 2013. The pay-per-view numbers were good but the fight wasn’t. Mayweather won by majority decision, with judge C.J. Ross mysteriously calling it a draw.

It was decisive enough for Mayweather to move on, to put Canelo in his rear-view. He had no interest in giving the kid a chance to catch up.

“Floyd was a great champion,” said Robert Diaz, who handles the matchmaking for Golden Boy Productions and, thus, Canelo. “He was also a great matchmaker.”

Canelo never will settle that account. That is his only loss. With every fight he is bigger, more confident, more composed, He struggled to get a shaky draw with Gennady Golovkin in 2017; he dictated the terms in the 2018 rematch.

Diaz was in a suite, off the MGM Grand lobby, on Tuesday. Canelo and his father-son training tandem of Chepo and Eddy Reynoso had left for the gym.

On Saturday night they will face Danny Jacobs at T-Mobile Arena in a bid to take Jacobs’ IBF middleweight belt and make it Canelo’s third. It’s a chance to solve another puzzle, pass another test in what is becoming a post-graduate career.

“I think it is a sad part of the boxing game,” Diaz said. “Finally the world is acknowledging all these improvements that Canelo has made. Maybe the Reynosos will get some recognition as Trainers of the Year. But Nacho Beristain was a legendary trainer from Mexico, too, and he never got it.”

Chepo Reynoso has deep-set eyes and a ready smile. He looks like he could be your neighborhood butcher, which, for 32 years, he was.

“I was training fighters but the boxing wasn’t giving me any money,” Reynoso said, through an interpreter. “I was putting money into boxing instead of receiving money. One day I say to God, ‘Please help me choose between these two businesses. Give me a sign.’ He did. And I don’t think I made a mistake.”

That was before Canelo came along. His older brother Rigoberto was a WBA super welterweight champ for a while. There were seven sons of Santos Alvarez, and Saul was the youngest. Rigoberto told Reynoso that the kid had some talent.

“I said this is crazy,” Reynoso said. “He had the freckles and the red hair. But he was fast, and he learned really fast.”

Reynoso is credited with giving Saul the Canelo nickname, which translates to “cinnamon” and has become his ID, like Neymar. He and Eddy have given Canelo technique and strategy. Canelo has given them identity and, yeah, lots of money.

It seems to work, especially when you consider the teenagers who were even more renowned than Canelo. Think of Felix Verdejo, the sure thing who suffered a motorcycle accident in 2016 and has struggled since. Think of Victor Ortiz and Tyrell Biggs and Francisco Bojado.

A boxing career is more pothole than pavement. Canelo avoided the worldly dangers. He stayed in the gym, fought difficult folk like Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout when he didn’t have to, learned as he went. He never forsook the Reynosos.

Now featherweight champ Oscar Valdez and viral contender Ryan Garcia have joined the Reynosos, whose slogan is No Boxing, No Life. The signs keep coming.

“It’s normal to have success when you work hard,” Chepo said. “What people don’t remember is that we had four champions before Canelo.”

The most successful was Oscar Larios, who was 63-7-1 and won titles at 122 and 126 pounds. He lost a unanimous decision to Manny Pacquiao in the Phillippines 13 years ago.

Larios and the others trained at a hole-in-the-wall gym called the Julian Magdaleno. Today there’s a large mural of a triumphant Canelo, a belt over his shoulder.

“We have a gym now that is 10 times bigger,” Chepo said. “But that gym will always be the one in my heart.”

“We took Victor Terrazas there for sparring,” Diaz said. “That place is like home to Canelo. It’s more like a small garage.”

It’s never trainer vs. trainer, but Roach was in Miguel Cotto’s corner when Canelo beat him, and Virgil Hunter was in Amir Khan’s corner when Canelo beat him, and Abel Sanchez was in Golovkin’s when Canelo drew with, and beat, him.

Uncharacteristically, Chepo called Golovkin a “donkey” before the second fight, but that had become a grudge match, with Canelo getting suspended for PEDs and claiming that he was waylaid by Mexican beef.

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